It's an awesome pattern, Ginger. I have another one of these OTN. My situation is a bit reversed from yours. After knitting socks on size 2s for so long, the move to a bigger needle while staying with a small gauge yarn was marvelous. Felt like I cast on, and poof rows appeared.

I found the way the pattern repeat was written made it harder than it had to be. At least for me.

Until I marked with stitch markers this way on row 1: 2 sts, pm, (18 sts, pm) for each feather & fan pattern repeat [k2tog 3X....k2tog 3X] this will leave 2 sts at the end for the edge stitches. Once i did that, I could worry more about knitting the feather & fan than counting.